michelle_d

Yay. Glad to know I have options. lol. My clinical for my nurse aide course had us working 3 days for 8 hours, and even with that i found i was becoming exhausted by thursday, so I know if I'm working 12 hours I'll end up half dead by thurs. edited because it looked like 38 hour days at first. whoops

One thing that I think will get to me if I decide to go into nursing is working 12 hour shifts. I know that even though I will be ok for the first day or so, after that the lack of sleep will catch up to me and my performance and mood will fall drastically. So, I'm curious if most nurses work 12 hour days or if there are jobs that offer 10 or 8 hour days. I would really like to work just eight hours, because any more than that makes it so hard on my body. I think I need more sleep than the average person.

Thank you so much for the kind and encouraging words! One thing I definitely have always wanted to do is make a difference in someone's life. And even if it's just being able to make them more comfortable or getting them something to eat, it counts in the long run. :redbeathe

I'm so glad to here all the stories of other people crying during situations or because of sad events or even happy events. it makes me feel much better about my own responses to things to know others have similar ones. thank you all for your stories and kind words!

I feel better after hearing similar stories from other folks here. I'd rather have empathy than be someone that doesn't care, like some of the people have said here! I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one that has had responses like this to incidents. I'm not even sure what a valsalva maneuver is... but I'm going to look it up now. I'm just a nurse aid at the moment, not an actual nurse in training. But, I'm looking into going further. The NAPT course was to test the water, so to speak. I talked to one of the cenas there, and she asked me if I liked it. And I said that I did so far. When I asked if she liked it, her response was that she 'hated it'. I feel bad for the residents and her too, cause they can tell if the cenas don't like their job. The lady I wrote about earlier told me how some of the cenas slam things around, and when she asks if they like their job, they're always like 'oh I love it.' But she said she can tell which ones really do like what they do and which ones are just going through the motions. It's funny, because I was always more worried how I'd react to having to give someone a bath or do something that's very personal (like pericare). I had to clean up that lady's backside after a BM movement, but it didn't bother me. But if I have to ask residents to do things that they don't want to do, it's a lot harder for me.

I'm doing a clinical at a ltcf, and the last time I was there a resident became unresponsive for about two minutes. A staff cena and I were helping her with a BM movement, and after we had gotten her back into her wheelchair, she said her stomach hurt. Then, she just glazed over and started staring into space, not moving. The staff cena waved her hand in front of her face and we both called her name, and then she told me to go get her nurse. The entire thing took only about 2 minutes, and the resident snapped out of it and seemed fine. In the end, four other classmates of mine were there, the nurse, my instructor, and the other staff cena. I became upset and started crying. Not outright sobbing, but I had tears in my eyes and was I gasping now and then. I had to excuse myself to the bathroom for about five minutes. I was the only one out of everyone that seemed to be so upset. I guess it was because I had formed a relationship with that resident, and she was the first one that I had spoken to when I began my clinicals. She also reminded me of my grandmother. Just seeing her with that vacant look in her eyes really threw me off my feet. I'm just wondering if other people here have had similar experiences when they were starting out. it made me question if had the right stuff to go into a nursing career, if I became so emotional over something that turned out to be minor (well, supposedly minor.)

Thanks, I feel better after hearing some other people had similar problems when they just started out. I'm starting to feel more used to asking residents to do things. It helps that most of the residents on my wing don't have cognitive problems, so we can communicate with each other a lot easier.

Hey again. I'm doing a clinical for a NATP course at a LTCF. I just finished my second day. I'm ok with most of it, but I find that I still feel awkward coming into resident's rooms, or asking them to do things. Also, if I have a resident that mumbles or is cognitively impaired, it makes it all the harder. Like today, I was helping one of the staff CENAs assist a resident to the toilet, and he was ashamed that he had to do that sort of thing in front of others. He didn't want us to help lift him up, but he couldn't stand on his own. I just felt so bad for him. He was also not all there, so he didn't make a lot of sense at times. I also worry a lot that I'll hurt them on accident when I try to dress them or move their feet up into the wheelchair rests (so that they don't dangle when the wheelchair is moving.) I guess I just feel awkward and out of place while the staff is so competent and relaxed about everything.

Thanks everyone for all the replies! I got a lot of different answers, but it goes to show that the health care field can be different depending on where you are and all that. Thanks for the link to the article also. That's what I was looking for!

Hm, well I'll have to just go in expecting that I might get responses like that, but also know that I don't want to risk injuring myself because I didn't have enough help. It is good to know though because I can prepare myself mentally for situations where I could get responses like that.

Oh ok. That's good it's not the serious ones. Yeah, I know it can vary with each person. It's still kind of a relief to see some out there with more positive stories to tell for back injuries, though. I plan to talk to as many of the other CENA's and nurses at my clinicals to get their opinions too.

Thanks for the tips. And this is kind of dumb, but which injuries are you referring to here? The debilitating serious ones, or ones where we sprain or pull something? That's good to know. :) Thanks to everyone else who replied too. (not that I want to stop talking about it! lol)

I guess in a nutshell I'm worried more about debilitating chronic pain from a back injury. I've had back pain and have probably pulled a muscle or two in the past, but it's the idea of permanent serious damage that makes me so nervous.

some of you are talking about lifting obese people with only one other person to help. I asked one of my professors about this and she told me to always ask for more help if I need it. And she implied that if I couldn't get it, I shouldn't work there. Anyone else take this stand on things? edited for a typo. lol.

Thanks guys. Eh, kinda depressing. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that when I mean back injury I'm talking about something that's permanent. So I'm not as concerned over a sprained muscle as I am over having chronic back pain. I remember my mother saying that when she did her clinicals (for OT) her boss had to walk with a cane and couldn't climb stairs because of her back.

I'm taking a class to become a CNA and I think I'll work as one for a few years while I move up the waiting list for the nursing degree I'm considering. I know back injuries are a problem for the health field, and I was wondering if anyone knew any statistics for CNA's and back related injuries. Also, do you believe most injuries occur due to inadequate training, rushing, not having another person to help or practicing poor body mechanics? Or, does body mechanics seem to not reflect the amount of back injuries seen? Thanks for any comments! :)

Thanks for the replies! I was busy with class and kind of forgot to check back on it again. I'm getting better at reading the pulse. I'm going to use the advice of not using the tips of my fingers, since that's where I felt my own pulse. I've been practicing finding the brachial pulse on myself and on my family, but it's still a ways until I'm able to pick it up easily.

Hopefully this is allowed. If it's not just remove it. I'm taking a CNA course at my college, and we're working on vital signs. We just learned how to take BP today. The thing is, I can feel my pulse through my fingertips. So when I try to take someone else's BP, I can never tell when their pulse goes away because I end up feeling my own pulse instead. Does anyone else have this problem? I feel almost silly going to the professor with it. lol.

Haha I fail at spelling. I've decided go to the CNA route, mostly because it's quicker and because it's cheaper. Like some other people said, I woudln't learn as much if I went the MA way. But, I'm curious if anyone knows anything about those 'train to work' organizations that offer certification in things. I'm steering clear of them at this point, because none of them are accredited with any organization. Does that sound like the best course of action?

Thanks Iwanna, that was a very resourceful post, and thanks to the other posters too. I believe that the CNA is the best rout after what you wrote. At the moment, I was thinking of getting my certificate at the same college I just got an associate's in graphic design from, but I might look and see if any hospitals or nursing homes would fund the education for me. One thing I was concerned over was accreditation. There were many 'train to work' types of organizations that I found that offered certificates, but none of them were accredited with any medical organizations, or any organizations at that. That's why I decided on the junior college. I've heard that the best way to tell if a program is good quality is to see if the organization offering it is credited with a medical organization. Is this true?

I realized I spelled "assistant" wrong in the title, but I can't edit and fix it. Typical. hah. I'm fairly decided on nursing as a career choice, but I want to get a certificate in something first so I can decide if it's really for me, before putting in loads of time and money. At first I was considering getting a certificate in nursing assistance, but now I'm considering if it would be just as well to get one in medical assistance instead. I believe I would enjoy medical assistance work more, but I don't know if I would get the 'hand's on' experience that I would with a CNA. The main goal of whichever thing I get is to decide if nursing is something I can tolerate, and hopefully even enjoy. What do you think? :)

AH NETWORKING. LOL that's ALL i heard about after coming from graphic design. (I have an associate's in it, but I'm having trouble finding a job) One of the reasons i'm thinking about nursing was job security or being able to actually find a job.

Hey guys, me again. Still considering nursing. Now I have a new concern. I've read that new grads have a hard time getting work (but who doesn't these days). I read one post where someone was still looking after a year. Does this seem to be the norm? Are there facilities that will hire new grads for positions? I know the local hospital by my house has a nursing education program, and offers up to 600 nursing student placements, so I think that sounds like a really good omen. Also, do most of you work 12 hour shifts? I really don't know if I'd have the energy to work that many hours at once (while still doing a good job).

Okay thanks. Back injuries are another issue I'm concerned over, but I wasn't as concerned over that as I was with the needlestick thing. But, now that I've read some statistics on actual infection rates, I feel a lot better about the situation. :)

Thanks. I'm not as 'freaked out' over the whole thing as I was earlier, especially now that I've had some time to read up on the statistics. Needlesticks never occured to me before this point as a major concern, and the only thing that made me consider them was getting my finger pricked after giving my diabetic cat her insulin shot this morning. This is the second time it's happened to me in less than a year. The used needle went through the plastic cap because it was crooked (my cat moved) and it jabbed me when I picked it up. :smackingf